Buck: Nobody’s going to feel sorry for Mets

Another injury hit. First series loss of the season. Five games won, and five games lost, in the past 12 days. Depending on how one views the Mets’ recent batch of games and the injury bug making its way through the locker room, the team is experiencing yet another early season test complete with challenges. Tylor Megill (biceps tendinitis) became the latest player to land on the injured list on Sunday, capping a weekend that saw James McCann (left hamate surgery) also become sidelined for the next several weeks. The Mets (23-13) went 8-5 in their 13-game stretch against the division, only to return to Citi Field and lose their first series of the season. The Mariners, a sneaky-good team according to Brandon Nimmo, surprised the Amazin’s with how well they played, winning two out of three.

But the way manager Buck Showalter views the club’s recent stretch is no different than how he expected things to pan out when the Mets opened spring training. Being prepared for tough situations and foreseeing challenges is this skipper’s modus operandi, which is why these Mets seem better positioned than in previous years to weather the storm.

“We’ve been grinding since the first day of spring, trying to hurry and get ready,” Showalter said. “We lost Jake (deGrom), we lost (Sean) Reid-Foley, we lost (Trevor) May, it’s part of the game. Nobody cares about your problems; they’re happy you got ’em.”

That last sentence from Showalter is one he often uses when he’s asked about the team navigating tough situations. Showalter, like three-time Cy Young winner Max Scherzer and a handful of other players on the 2022 team, is not one to make excuses for dealing with adversity.

Only a rare breed of humans can smoothly turn a negative situation into a positive—perhaps this is a chance for an underrated player to step up—and Showalter is one of those people. Yes, two of his top arms are down. Yes, his starting catcher is set to undergo surgery on his hand. Yes, the Mets are still on top of the NL East with one of the best winning percentages (.639) in the league. For Showalter, who won three Manager of the Year awards across a 20-year span, the Mets’ challenges just present more opportunities to surprise a lot of people.

GOT YOUR BACK

A couple of weeks after Travis Jankowski said, “No one’s going to be buying my jersey,” joking about his bench role with the Mets, his teammates can be seen walking around the clubhouse and doing early work on the field all while wearing a Jankowski shirt.

Third baseman Eduardo Escobar ordered a box of white Janksowski t-shirts for the team following the self-deprecating comment. Escobar recently unloaded the box and handed out the Jankowski shirseys to all of his teammates.

SUPPORTING THE RANGERS

Francisco Lindor had his No. 23 Adam Fox jersey draped over his clubhouse chair after the Mets lost, 8-7, to the Mariners on Sunday. Lindor and a handful of other Mets players had a suite for Game 7 of Penguins-Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Sunday. Nimmo sheepishly admitted he, too, was getting ready to head over to MSG. But he wouldn’t give up a prediction for the game outcome.

“No predictions, but looking forward to a good game and hopefully New York wins,” Nimmo said.